Cumulus, Clear Channel Praise Nielsen

Cumulus and Clear Channel remain Arbitron customers for PPM and larger diary markets not covered by Nielsen. But their chief executives praised the Nielsen Kentucky results.

Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey said the findings in the Nielsen pilot underscore the need to include cell-phone-only households in radio audience ratings. Clear Channel Radio President/CEO John Hogan said it is “no surprise the most highly coveted demographic listens to 23 hours of radio per week — that’s a far cry from what we’ve been told for years by inaccurate ratings.” He continued: “Now we can get to the business of discussing radio’s true value with advertisers.”

Arbitron has moved up its timetable to include cell-phone-only households in its diary samples, planning to incorporate those in 151 diary markets in the spring survey and to all markets by fall.

New Arbitron President Michael Skarzynski told reporters and analysts recently he apologized to both broadcasters, saying the company had “dropped the ball” in smaller diary markets and vowing to win back their business.